Ethereum Shapella Upgrade Finally Launched on Mainnet as PoS Journey Deepens

UTC by Godfrey Benjamin · 3 min read
Ethereum Shapella Upgrade Finally Launched on Mainnet as PoS Journey Deepens
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Ethereum is witnessing very mild volatility with respect to its price action in the hours following the Shapella upgrade.

The long-awaited Shanghai Hardfork also known as the Shapella upgrade has finally gone live on the Ethereum (ETH) mainnet in what represents one of the most bullish protocol upgrades since the transition to the Proof-of-Stake (PoS) consensus model last year. The Shapella upgrade enabled the transfer of staked ETH assets from the Beacon Chain to the execution layer also known as the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM).

These directional token transfers made the withdrawals of the staked Ethereum tokens possible, a feature that many have been waiting for since at least December 2020. This time coincided with the point-staking resume following the release of the deposit address for the Beacon Chain.

The Shapella upgrade went live at exactly 10:27 pm UTC on April 12 at epoch number 194,048. There was significant network activity within the first 60 minutes following the upgrade as data analytics platform Beaconchai.in revealed that a total of 12,859 Ethereum tokens were unlocked. These released tokens took place following a total of 4,333 withdrawal requests.

A lot of significant on-chain activity was predicted prior to the actual launch of the upgrade on Mainnet. Shapella notably ignited the potential release of 18.1 million ETH tokens worth as much as $34.8 billion. This massive ETH supply sent fears into the ecosystem as analysts projected there might be a massive selloff of the tokens.

These selloffs would have tanked the price of Ethereum in what might derail the bullish growth of the cryptocurrency thus far this year. In a bid to prevent the selloff and allay the fears in the community, the Ethereum Foundation unveiled a number of defined mechanisms to prevent the actual release of the digital currency which can notably stir the selloff.

Current Ethereum Outlook Post Shapella Upgrade

At the time of writing, Ethereum is witnessing very mild volatility with respect to its price action in the hours following the Shapella upgrade. According to data from CoinMarketCap, the cryptocurrency is changing hands at a price of $1,923.93, up by 3.65% over the past 24 hours.

The weekly losses accrued earlier have also been pared off as there is an obvious accumulation of Ethereum in what comes off as an unexpected move.

In the days leading to the upgrade, only about 3,996 validators signed up to the exit queue, a number that is fair considering the more than 7,940 validators linked to the staking service. In total, only about 284,622 ETH tokens are available for withdrawal from the total validators, a number set to prevent the flood of the market with the Ethereum tokens.

This Shapella Upgrade has been tipped as a viable push to lend good fortune to the Ethereum ecosystem as corporate money can now flow in. The staking service, though still evolving is considered as a viable revenue generation means that can generally benefit big corporate buyers.

In all, the upgrade is bound to make Ethereum a more viable PoS system and the upside implications for price are very high.

Altcoin News, Blockchain News, Cryptocurrency News, Ethereum News, News
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